Clark v. HCA, Inc

In Clark v. HCA, Inc., 210 S.W.3d 1 (Tex. App.--El Paso 2005, no pet.), the plaintiff claimed that she suffered complications from taking an anticoagulant that resulted in a paralysis of her arm. Id. at 4-5. The expert in Clark opined that "by failing to meet the standard of care, based on a reasonable medical probability, the development of the acute, compartment syndrome created the 'devastating dysfunction created by ischemic damage' causing the complete loss of use of the patient's right arm." Id. at 10. The court of appeals affirmed the trial court's decision to dismiss the medical malpractice suit as a result of a large analytical gap. Id. at 11. The court stated that the link was not that compartment syndrome can cause devastating dysfunction, but that the expert failed to explain how the anticoagulant caused the compartment syndrome. Id.